Surfer Girl
by swimmy6
Summary: Percy Jackson has gone to California on a summer vacation. While there he encounters surfer girl: Annabeth Chase. After getting off on a not-fairy-tale-ending start, will they still turn out friends? How will this summer shape up in the books of Percy Jackson? AU all mortal.
1. Surf's Up

**A/N: Hello there! So this is my first multi-chapter (hopefully) fic, so I'm sorry if it's a little rough... But please enjoy.**

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Of course, what better way was there to spend a summer vacation in California than scoping the beaches for that perfect summer girl? And well yes, he had to admit, maybe he didn't have the greatest shot in the world, but hey it was better than nothing!

With his mom sitting just behind him in a reclining red beach chair, he tried to make it a little farther from her, but before he got even ten feet away, he heard her voice over the roar the waves, "Perseus Jackson! Just where do you think you're going?" He felt his face rush with heat and he turned around and trudged slowly back to her, "I was just going to… uh… watch the surf competition." His mom pulled the sunglasses down from the bridge of her nose and gave him a relaxed smile, "Okay, Percy, just stay out of trouble." She waved him off.

Honestly, he loved his mom beyond anything. She was everything to him, but it was just that sometimes she liked to embarrass him at the worst moments. And right now, with the beach crawling with girls that he might be able to flirt with, he really didn't want to deal with it….

Percy could see the large white tent in the distance and the groups of people that mingled around the area. He joined the groups of people, but stayed with no one in particular.

They were all pretty interested in something else, maybe the surfing, but whatever it was he didn't seem to notice it. Then he heard his name, "Hey! Percy!" He turned in circles, checking over his shoulder more than once, until he finally saw Grover. His friend from high school. He had his hand around another girl's, to which Percy was happy to see it was Juniper.

He hugged his friend and nodded an acknowledgement to Juniper, "So how have you been?" His friend asked. Percy shrugged, "Not much. What brings you to this competition?"

"Just enjoying the surfing… okay well not really. I don't understand half of it." Grover conceded.

An awkward silence grew over the group and Percy just nodded his head praying that someone would bring up another topic, "So…" Percy started, but soon began to cough and pant for air. It felt like someone had just squeezed all of the air out of his lungs. He bent over trying to (hopefully) get even more oxygen, but he felt a sharper part of something dig into his side.

He heard someone gasp and mutter something, "Oh my God! Are you okay, man?" Grover asked sitting on the ground. A pretty blonde came into his eyesight. She looked freaked out, "Oh God! Are you okay?" She put a hand on his hunched shoulders. He didn't even look up from the ground before he replied, "Would you be okay if you got smacked with a surfboard?" She flinched and pulled her hand away. She muttered something, but it went unnoticed by Percy.

He could now feel the heat in his side ripping and he closed his eyes to wince in pain, "I am so sorry! What can I get you?" Finally Percy lifted his gaze and was met with a very, very pretty blonde. At first he was a little star struck, but with another bout of pain, he was brought back around.

She noted this and tentatively wrapped her arm around his waist, being careful to steer clear of the aching area. She took him to the first aid tent then called to one of the girls helping out there, "Thalia, can I get a bag of ice over here?" Her petite framed friend came over to judge the situation, "Oh what did you do this time, Percy?" She asked when she caught sight of his face.

"You know him?" the girl who had hurt him asked. Thalia shrugged, "Distant relatives, something like that. I really don't pay attention to that family stuff."

"Annabeth!" She turned away from the bed he was lying on and faced another man. He was much older than her, and Percy guessed was her dad, "They're awarding now." She made a face of annoyance quickly then wiped it clean off and followed him out of the tent.

Thalia appeared by his side again, and shoved a bag of ice at him, "Who was that?"

"Oh no, don't you dare get any ideas about her, Percy."

"I'm not! I'm just curious!" She mocked him before answering the question, "Annabeth Chase, my friend." She said with a stern look.

He cringed when he took the melting ice bag off of his side and saw the nasty purple bruise that was already beginning to form.

"Thalia! Thalia! Guess what!" Annabeth was absolutely giddy and wore one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen, "I got second in my age bracket! Amazing, right?!" Thalia just waved it off after offering a congratulatory remark.

Then Annabeth turned to Percy and saw him attempting to remove himself from the medic table, "Oh no you don't. Get back up there." She pointed to the table.

"But I'm fine!" He fought back. She gave him the same stern look that Thalia had given him not more than fifteen minutes ago, "Fine, I'm going!"

Once he was situated on the table, she held out her hand, "I do not believe I have introduced myself, I am Annabeth Chase."

"Percy Jackson." He shook her hand.

"Is there anything I could do to make this situation better?" She pointed to his side and attempted to hide her disgust at the bruise.

"I'm afraid there is nothing that can be done, Miss Chase." He said in an all-too dramatic voice.

"Such a shame, too. I was going to see if you wanted to come to a bonfire tonight… Oh well…" She shrugged her shoulders. He looked up at her, his interest sparked again, "A bonfire? I mean if you insist…" He said again with a teasing edge to his voice. She smiled, "I do insist."

"I'll be there."

"Cool. Ten o'clock tonight. This beach. I'll see you there." She said before turning to walk out of the tent again.

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**A/N: So I'm not going to try to pester for reviews, but it would be great just to get some constructive criticism on it and whether or not I should continue to the next chapter! Thanks again for reading!**

**-Swimmy**


	2. The Bonfire Part 1

**A/N: Thank you to all of you who have read this! I'm so amazed by the response it got! Thank you to all of you who followed and favorited this story! I'm so happy you find it nice enough to want to continue! And now, onto CHAPTER 2!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to Rick Riordan.**

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Grover helped him back to the condo that his mom had rented for them their vacation, but as soon as his mom caught sight of him limping, her inner mother came out, "Perseus! I thought I told you to stay out of trouble!" He just laughed, which in fact did cause a little pain in his side. Okay, so more than a little. He just sighed and plopped down on the couch, "I didn't get in a fight this time, mom!"

She crossed her arms, as if expecting a better explanation than that. With yet another sigh, he caved, "I got hit in the side with the fin of a surfboard, mom." She relaxed a bit more at that, then turned to Grover and Juniper, "Is this true?" They both nodded and his mom reverted back to reading her book.

"Hey mom," he started with a nervous shake, "There's a bonfire tonight…." She let out a somewhat frustrated sigh, "Percy," She was shaking her head, "You can barely move from the couch, how are you going to be able to move on a beach?"

"Please mom? Please?" He begged.

"Why is this so important? Can't you just stay in and let yourself heal up?"

And that was when he cursed everything under the sun for making him blush. His mom, being the observant woman that she was picked up on it immediately, "Oh!" She said with surprise, "There's a girl, isn't there?" Her eyes were alight with amusement, but Percy couldn't even meet her gaze without the heat traveling back to his cheeks.

His mother rarely achieved a blush from him, so she found this even more amusing, "I knew!" Her eyes were sparkling as she laughed.

Finally gaining her composure, she asked, "What's her name?"

"It's not like that, mom!" He tried to say it nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders. She gave him yet another smug grin, "I just wanted to know her name, Percy… you don't have to be so defensive!"

"Annabeth, her name is Annabeth Chase." He paused a moment, "So can I go?"

"Of course, Percy! Just promise me, this time, you'll stay out of trouble."

"Trouble follows me everywhere I go, mom." He replied with a lopsided grin.

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He looked at the clock and saw that it already read ten. Percy muttered incoherently under his breath. He checked himself in the mirror before heading out; at the last second he attempted for the hundredth time that night to smooth out his hair, but it just wouldn't stay there.

He walked out to the beach and saw the large pyre of wood burning in the near distance. Percy tried to jog lightly, but that hurt a little bit too much, "Heads up!" He heard someone call, but didn't look up until the other guy had knocked him over. Percy winced in pain when he fell to the ground on his already bruised side.

"Jason?" He asked once he recovered from his fall. The other boy turned and looked at him and realization dawned on him, "Percy! What's up? I didn't know you were coming!" Percy shrugged, brushing the sand off his shirt and shorts, "Annabeth invited me. Speaking of which, have you seen her anywhere?" Jason pointed over to the drinks.

She was standing there with her arms crossed against her chest. From his far away he could finally take in how she really looked. But that obviously wasn't long; she moved her eyes and caught his gaze. He gulped, suddenly nervous about nothing in particular, and walked over to meet her, "Hey, there stranger!" he said, seeing a bit of blush remaining on her cheeks. She smiled back at him, "Hey, Percy, I was beginning to think you weren't going to come…"

"I mean you did insist…" He replied with a grin. She smiled back at the sand, "So do you want something to drink? Or maybe some ice for that bruise?"

He rolled his eyes, "I'm fine without ice, thank you very much!" he replied in a huffy, playful tone, "But I could use a drink." He walked behind her to the coolers and grabbed a Coke from the stash, "So I bet you're wondering who else is here…"

"Not really."

"Well-" She cut herself off, "Really, Kelp Head?" He shook his head in shame for her, "What?" She pestered further.

"I'm going to kill her."

"Is that blush, Jackson?"

"Quit it…" He paused, "Wise Girl!"

Now it was her turn to laugh, "That is the worst name I've ever heard!"

"You must be Percy, Annabeth was telling us about you earlier." A girl with choppy brown hair reached her hand out to shake. He could see Annabeth blushing next to him.

"Oh really?" He shook his hand, "Percy."

"Piper." She replied, "Oh yeah, she couldn't stop talking about you…" Annabeth had gotten so quiet and tense next to him, but Piper's voice was so entreating to him that he couldn't stop listening, "She kept talking about how-"

"Piper!" Jason called to her.

She turned back to the two of them, "I'll see the two of you later!" She said as she waved to them.

This left the two of them alone again. Annabeth looked like she was fuming, but was trying to clear her head, "I'm sorry about that… that's Piper."

"So talking about me…" he said with an sparkle of amusement in his eyes, "about how… let's play fill in the blank, shall we?"

"Annoying." She said quickly crossing her arms over her chest again, "You are so annoying." She paused, "But come on, I'll introduce you to the others." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him over to a group standing around the fire.

**A/N: Thanks again! Stay tuned! And as always you are all amazing people!**

**-Swimmy**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks everyone who continued to favorite/follow this story! You guys rock!**

**I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, you are amazing people!**

**Chapter 1 Reviews:**

**Lolabeth: thanks! I'm trying my best to continue! It's just been a bit hard lately. School's been getting worse, so I'm having less and less time. :(**

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**Chapter 2 Reviews:**

**Guest: Thanks, again! I love all the support I've been getting!**

**Firefly9917: I'm so glad you like Piper! I was afraid that I was making her too OOC. I'm sorry if she is!**

**Spitfire303: I'm glad you find it interesting! I hope you'll continue reading it!**

**Birdie118: Yeah, I know. But it's SO HARD to write that much for more one chapter. But I know how you feel. I read that long of one's too! It's so hard to write something that long, too! So creds to anyone who can write that much! I hope you keep reading!**

**So without further ado, I present: The Bonfire Part Two**

Everyone's eyes raised to them when they had come around the fire. He uncomfortably stayed behind Annabeth, allowing her to do the introductions, "This is Percy. That's Jason," She pointed to the blonde boy sitting next to Piper, "Piper, who you already met, Thalia, Frank, Hazel, Nico, and Leo." He nodded, acting like he would actually remember them in a few minutes.

Then she paused, "Where's Luke?" She asked no one in particular. Ah, Luke. Jason had told him a bit about Luke; not much but just enough of his personality.

"Who's Luke?"

"Just a friend." She said, waving it off.

"Come on, Jackson! Sit down!" He heard Jason yell. Smiling internally that he was accepted by at least one person, he sat down next to Piper, hoping she might continue what she was saying earlier, and happily, she started to, "So as I was saying earlier-"

"Hey, Percy, can you move over a little?" Annabeth begged with a voice full of innocence. Unhappily, he obliged. He saw her turn to shoot a look at Piper, "Thanks." She said once she'd settled onto the ground.

It was a little tense for a minute, but she quickly picked up a new conversation with him, "Mmm… okay, favorite food." She turned to look at him with her gray eyes. He thought for a minute, as if the question actually required some sort of thought, "Pizza."

"Favorite color."

Percy chuckled, "Blue, of course." He paused, "So, do you surf often?"

He couldn't tell from the firelight, but he was sure that he saw her cheeks go red, "What kind of question is that?" she lightly punched him in the shoulder. He didn't say anything, so she continued, "Yeah, I do. Every summer. I stay with my mom for the entire school year, then I spend the summers out here with my dad and step-mother." She shrugged casually.

There was a tense pause, but she spoke again, "What do you do?"

"I'm a swimmer." He said concisely. He was sure that she was going to say something like, _"The next Michael Phelps right here!" _But the odd this was, she didn't. Instead she asked, "What's your best stroke?"

"Backstroke and sometimes I.M. I barely missed the national times this winter."

"I'll be right back." She said distantly.

Piper shuffled closer to him, "Continuing from what I started earlier…" But this time Percy wasn't listening; he was following the fading silhouette of Annabeth disappearing in the darkness around him. He wanted to follow her, but knew that it would only make her mad, so begrudgingly, he stayed behind. Well that was until he heard the yelling from farther in the distance.

Scrambling he got up from the sand. He nervously drug his hand through his hair and followed the sound of voices. After a little bit, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he found Annabeth yelling at a guy, "What are you doing here, Luke?" she demanded, "You left us all behind, remember? You were too good for us! Go away!" She pushed him over.

The other person (Percy presumed was Luke) made eye contact with him and smirked, "Whoa there, Annabeth, don't want to make a bad impression on the newbie, do you?" He flashed them a charming smile, making Percy wonder if Annabeth was just being hard on the guy.

"Percy!" He heard her squeak. He saw her turn and she found him just behind her, "I'm fine, just go back to the fire." Percy crossed his arms almost defiantly. He let out a snort, "Annabeth, who is this?"

"Percy, this is Luke. Luke…" she paused resentfully, "this is Percy, my friend." Percy reached out and shook his hand.

There was that charming smile again, "Nice to meet you, Percy!"

"Annabeth, is he annoying you? Do you want him to leave?" Percy asked trying to read any facial expressions that she might show. But that was the thing he was starting to learn about her, she could hide all of her emotions so easily. She shook her head hesitantly, "He's fine." She said with a bitter edge to her voice.

Luke grabbed the crook of her elbow, "Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" She looked away from his uncertainly, "Sure…." She nodded to Percy for him to leave and so he did.

Okay, and while it may not have been so manly of him, he did sulk when he sat back down by the fire. He kept drawing in the sand to distract him. But then something caught his eye; two people pushed together like one. Annabeth and Luke. Oh God. And suddenly there went all of his chances to flirt with her.

Or so he thought for the next few seconds. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight; but then he saw her practically shove him off of her. She turned and started running back to the fire to grab her jacket. He averted his eyes from the scene, hoping she wouldn't get mad, "I have to go." She said quickly before turning to sprint in the other direction.

Something was off about it, and there was no way Percy would let her walk home alone after what he just saw. He sprinted after her, "Annabeth, wait!" And as much as his side hurt from the bruise, he was not about to let her get away.

He finally caught up to her as she slowed to a walk, "What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it." Her emotional shield was up again.

He let out a frustrated sigh, "I saw what happened. Are you okay?"

"What do you think?" She snapped.

"Sorry, that was a stupid question." He paused again, "Do you want me to go do something rash and punch him? Or just be diplomatic and try to organize a very peaceful treaty?"

"What was that?" he heard Luke say in the background, "You want to fight?" he sighed, "Well if it's a fight you want, pretty boy, it's a fight you'll get."

"Are you drunk?" he asked after catching a whiff of alcohol wafting through the air.

"So what if I am?" Luke swung a right hook that landed straight on Percy's jaw. He cursed in pain as he stumbled to the ground, as Luke again swung with a left hook to his eye. He couldn't see for a few seconds as the blurriness cleared, but he saw that Luke's ankle was placed just next to him, so he grabbed the ankle out from under him.

Once Luke was on the ground, Percy put his foot atop his chest, then turned to Annabeth, "Can you get me Jason?" But just that little distraction gave Luke time to grab Percy and throw him off balance. Desperately Luke's clenched hands hit his body, each more painful than the last, but worst was his side. Luke, though drunk, could see the bruise forming, and made that his general target.

Then suddenly, Luke was off of him: pinned down by both Jason and Frank. Jason was speaking to him in a harsh tone, and the fear in Luke's eyes was outrageous.

Annabeth came and stood next to him, "Um, thanks, I guess." She pause

He shrugged feeling a few joints pop, "You're welcome, I guess."

"I could've taken him if you would've let me." She said quietly. Percy was stunned by this, "Oh, really? It would've been nice to have had some assistance back there!" He ran a hand through his hair, then dabbed the blood off of his lip.

Her lips quirked up in a smile, "My father always told him not to get in a fight with two guys, I'll insult their manliness."

"Well thanks for all the help, because if you couldn't tell, I was kind of getting my butt handed to me…" he took a deep breath, "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

Then she cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed it, "I'll see you later. I have to get home." And before he could say anything, she was gone.

As he walked back to his condo, he knew he was right: trouble followed him wherever he went.


	4. So They Meet Again

**A/N: **_**(Pretty IMPORTANT!)**_** Hello! I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to update this! I really am! Life's just been a little hectic lately. Don't get mad if I don't update well into May… I'm getting an arthroscopic surgery to remove the plica in my knee in April, so it might take a while for a recover. I don't want to half-try when I write this, too. I want it to be good enough to be read.**

**Also thank you for all the follows and reviews again! You are all magnificent!**

**Birdie118: Awe, thanks, bro! (Can I call you that?) I'm happy that you're going to continue reading it! And glad that you like it! I really hope you enjoy this one as well. It took a little longer than usual to get planned out, sorry!**

**Henrie Locker: Thanks! I'm really glad that you liked it! I hope you enjoy this one as well!**

**And now! Chapter Four! I hope you enjoy it!**

He woke up the next morning, but it wasn't by the usual sun shining through his windows. It was his own doing. Something that rarely happened. He knew that there was absolutely no reason to be up so early, but still he got up.

He cut his blue waffles with no thought at all. All his focus could stray to was Annabeth. Cliché, of course. She'd made the first move on him. He thought about how odd that is; he was usually forced to make the first move and while it might annoying another guy, he was beyond grateful that she did.

But the thing was, Percy was beginning to feel like a girl. His constant overthinking of this situation put him in territory to becoming an analyst. The main questions on his mind consisted of: _what did it mean? Why would she kiss his cheek? Was it just a way of saying thank you? Why don't they make blue syrup…?_

Okay, so the last question had absolutely nothing to do with Annabeth, but the question still had relevance to him!

So what better way to clear his head than to get some fresh air? And what better place to get some fresh air than the beach?

So with that Percy changed into some board shorts and was headed to the sandy dunes just outside the condo.

He was just enjoying letting the wind and the waves clear his mind of any stressors that may have been in it moments before. But like every other opportunity, it didn't last, "Percy?" He was shaken out of his little reverie by the soft voice. Internally he cursed.

Yes, his problems followed him everywhere he went. Not that this problem wasn't one he liked to see often…

He turned around so he could look back over his shoulder and see Annabeth, "Yeah, what's up?" So he was nervous, don't laugh! Here is the first girl he legitimately has liked, and what if she doesn't feel like that, too? Stupid, stupid crushes.

"Not much, I just finished surfing." She paused, hoping he would pick up the conversation, but he didn't. She sighed, sitting down next to him. Her knees were pulled up against her chest and he could tell that she was uneasy about something.

Then the silence was broken, "Listen about last night…" he almost flinched. Here it was, the rejection. But it didn't come as quickly as he thought, "I'm sorry about Luke. I thought that I could talk some sense into him, but it didn't work like that…" Wait, what? So she wasn't upset about anything other than Luke?

"Well thanks for helping with Luke and everything." He replied sardonically. He felt guilty for saying it so harshly. He meant it more as a joke, but his stupid mouth has to go and ruin everything.

"Sorry… but that was very nice of you to help. I wouldn't have been able to take him on my own."

"So what's the thing with Luke? I kind of get that he may like you, but hey I don't even know the guy that well!"

She blushed looking away from him. She hid her gray eyes behind a curtain of her hair, "He was a close friend at one point. He was a good guy, still is deep down, I know it. He put us at a distance and has gotten closer with a few people that aren't so good. I don't know if he likes me like that."

He smiled a bit at that. Okay, so she was as oblivious as he was about feelings! Score one for Percy!

Maybe he even still had a chance.

She stood up and brushed the sand off of her, "Anyway, now that I finished that, I'm having the group over tonight for pizza. And I figured you liked pizza, I mean you said it was your favorite food last night… but don't feel like that means you have to…" She paused looking at him hopefully.

But was he more than confused? Yes. "Doesn't mean I have to…?"

"Oh, come over to dinner with the group." Her hands were wringing themselves out, but finally dropped back down to her sides as he said, "Yeah, sure."

"Great, be there around seven." She took out a pen from her bag and grabbed his hand. On it she wrote her address and phone number. Yes, Percy Jackson just got her number, and he was more than happy about that.


	5. Fate Takes the Wheel

**A/N: Hello, lovelies! Yes, two chapters in two days, a new record? I know. I'm sorry for the delay on the last one! So I hope this one will make up for that! So far this is my longest chapter! Yay! _I decided I wanted to try another POV, and went with Annabeth._ I hope I did justice to her character.**

**Well, thank you again to all of you who favorited and followed the story, that means the world to me!**

**To my two reviewers, you are magnificent!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: Thank you for your support and answering my question so quickly. I may or may not have had two different chapter in the works when I asked... so thanks for helping me pick! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**henrie locker: Thanks, I'm glad you got a laugh out of the last chapter! Enjoy this one as well!**

**Without further adieu: Chapter Five, Fate Takes the Wheel**

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Annabeth's POV:

She had noticed the bruising along his jawline as soon as she saw him, but didn't want to say anything. She felt awkward enough having indirectly done that to him. Okay, so maybe she shouldn't feel guilty about it. It was his fault for following her.

Now she was sitting there in her room, passing time by waiting for Piper and Thalia to get there. She did let her mind wander a bit. And please don't laugh! It may have wandered to Percy. She knew so little about him (well besides the undescriptive small facts that she found out last night), but still he seemed so nice and was always willing to help out. Even if that meant that he would get hurt.

Her door flew open, and Piper flopped onto her bed next to her, "Geez, Annabeth, I knocked on the door four or five times! What were you thinking about?" She felt her face go a little red, and Piper knew exactly what she was thinking about.

"Oh, you were thinking about Percy." With a laugh, Piper rolled her eyes as Annabeth attempted to explain herself, "No! It's not what you think, Piper! Not that way!" But Piper was too busy laughing to notice, but Annabeth continued, "You are so annoying, you know that?"

Piper wiped the tears that were forming out of her eyes, "Yeah, I know. You're welcome!" there was a bit of silence, "I would help you find something for you to wear tonight, but honestly that's not my specialty; that's more of what-" Piper cut herself off, suddenly overcome with a somber expression.

Annabeth scooted closer to her friend and put an arm around her shoulder, "I'm sorry, Piper. I miss her, too. I'm sure she's looking down at you right now and trying to tell you to get a hold of yourself. You are the strong one, and that's what everyone needs right now. You are amazing and she would want you to honor her by still living life, okay?" Piper hesitantly nodded before wiping her eyes again.

"I really miss her." Piper sobbed quietly.

"I know." She gave her friend another hug.

Then Thalia decided to burst into the room without warning, "Oh sorry, am I interrupting some kind of moment?" Piper let out a small laugh.

"No, it's fine." She put on a brave smile stood up to lean against the wall.

"Okay, anyway… who else is coming tonight?"

"Well, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Percy, and Jason." She said the ending names faster than the rest, hoping that Thalia wouldn't pick up on it.

Thalia let out an exasperated sigh, "Jackson's coming?" She crossed her arms over her chest, "Why? Kelp Head is so annoying!" Piper just laughed quietly, "Isn't there some kind of rule against liking a friend's cousin?"

Annabeth sighed, "Why does everyone think that I like him like that?"

"You've got to be kidding me, Annabeth!" Piper cried, "He obviously likes you that way! And you like him back!"

She knew that he didn't. He would've tried to kiss her at least once, right? That's what most guys would do. He would've made Luke stay away from her forever. But he wasn't that kind of guy. He was just a good friend.

"And don't even get me started on last night!" Piper said rolling her eyes again. Annabeth shook her head, trying to block out most of last night, but Piper didn't seem to feel the same way, "He was always next to you! He actually made you laugh, and blush. I've never seen you blush, Annabeth!" Piper looked at her sternly.

"Okay, so maybe he likes me a little, but honestly he's just a good friend!"

"Then why'd you kiss his cheek last night?" Thalia blurted out. Annabeth's head snapped when she heard it. Her face went bright red and she refused to answer that last question, but they both kept pestering her.

"Do you hear that, Thalia? Because I think it sounds like Annabeth is backed into a corner!" Thalia was now laughing with Piper again, but Annabeth couldn't stop fuming about it.

She jumped off of her bed and turned away from her friends. She reached into her closet and pulled out a pair of khaki shorts and one of her many t-shirts. This one just so happened to be orange.

She was about to leave to go change, but Piper grabbed her elbow, "You're not seriously just wearing that, right?"

"I am! He's only a friend, so why would it matter what I'm wearing?" Piper had no answer to that one. Annabeth continued, "And besides, he's only here for vacation this summer. A maximum of two months. He'll go back to wherever he's from and forget about me. Nothing can happen between us."

Thalia started to smile, "He's from New York City." Annabeth's eyes widened in surprise.

"What?"

"New York City, he lives there. Also the city that you happen to live in during the school year."

"You're kidding me, right?" She was gaping at her friend, but Thalia shook her head, "He doesn't know that, so it's okay." She paused before looking back at the clock, "I'm going to change my clothes. You can wait downstairs, it's almost seven. I'm sure the boys will be here soon."

Once her friends had left the room, she checked herself in herself mirror. She shrugged at the appearance, then put her hair up in a ponytail. She didn't really care about what she looked like; it was just out of habit to check her mirror. She reached for her clothes and changed into them.

_Maybe Percy is just a good friend, maybe nothing will happen, maybe I'm just overthinking everything. Maybe I just need to let everything go, and let fate take its course. Yes, that's exactly what I'll do. _She won't make any more moves. Okay, she'll be who she is and not try to make that kind of impression on him.

_Okay, _she thought,_ Fate, if you want something to come out of this, you're going to have to show me._

She heard a knock on her door, "Geez, Thalia, I said I was-" She opened the door. It was freaking Percy.

She jumped back a bit. Her heart was beating quickly from some sort of adrenaline rush, "Uh, sorry, I'm not a girl…" He shrugged jokingly with that stupid lazy smirk on his face. She somewhat hated that ridiculous smirk, but it was so cute as well!

"I figured I would come a little early, seeing as last time someone thought I wouldn't end up coming because I was just a little late." She wanted to punch him so badly in the arm, but she refrained from the urge.

"Oh, shut up." She said teasingly, "So how did your parents take the new bruises?" she asked once they had returned to the living room. He leaned up against the wall, "Oh, you know, not so well…" he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, I would've thought your dad would've been proud of you for getting into a fight…" she meant it jokingly, but she saw his eyes lose a little bit of light. He muttered something quietly, then realized that she didn't hear it, so he repeated, "Oh, yeah, my dad doesn't come around much."

She felt absolutely horrible, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to make you upset or mad."

"I'm not mad or upset. Anyway my mom was like, 'Percy! What did you do this time?'" He said this in a slightly higher pitched voice, "And I told her I was fine, but of course you know women, she had to go and touch it and poke it and yell at me for it! Women!" He said all in one breathe.

"Hey, in case you haven't noticed I am a woman!" she said challenging him. There was that silly smirk again, "I'm pretty sure I've noticed." He flashed her a quick smile, "Then she went on to tell me, 'I'm going to have to lock you up! All you do is get in trouble, Perseus!' I told her I was fine, again. She just glared at me. I swear it's like a thing that all women have. There's like this glare that you all can do and it's so weird!" She shot him her glare without even thinking, "See?! That's the one! You both have the same one!"

"Wow, Jackson, compare me to your mother. You really know how to make a girl feel special."

"You sound a lot like my mom!"

"Again, Percy, I feel so special!"

"I didn't mean it like that!"

She had to keep from laughing, but he looked so uncomfortable, like he was backed into a corner. Then she saw him look away. Geez, boys and their stomachs. He saw the pizza. She almost wanted to laugh because of that.

"Is that pizza?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Yeah, you can have some if you want."

He perked up at the sound of that.

When he'd left, Piper swooped down, "So, how's Percy?"

"He's good, I guess. His mom kind of freaked out about his bruises…" She felt even guiltier about it.

He came back with at least four pieces on his plate, and waved at Piper, "Hey, you're Piper, right?" She nodded.

"So Percy, how much trouble is Annabeth in for those bruises?"

"None, I'm sure my mom didn't mind _that_ much!"

"You said that she basically freaked out! She said she'd have to lock you up!" Annabeth's arms folded across her chest.

He laughed, "She does that, too!" Annabeth blushed and she noticed that Piper was trying not to laugh at her as well.

"Hey, Piper, can you come over here?" Jason called. She waved goodbye to them.

"So as I was saying before I got a little distracted," he took a quick bite of one of the pieces. Now there were two pieces remaining. He cleared his throat and was about to continue, but was cut off by Leo who called over the sound of everything in the room, "Annabeth! Percy! Come on you're going to miss the whole movie!"

Annabeth sighed and was pulled over to the couch and barely watched the movie. Her mind did wander just a bit. She knew that everyone had to get out of her house by ten. Her step-mother said that everyone would be out of the house until ten, and that she didn't want anyone left at the house when she was home.

Great mother she was.

It was two minutes until ten, and the movie had just finished. She made eye contact with Thalia and Piper, who attempted to push everyone out. They were both pretty successful, but they missed one: Percy. She turned around after she closed the door, "Need some help cleaning up?" he asked picking up a few of the boxes.

Her eyes bugged out in fear, "Oh no, it's fine! Don't worry about it!"

"Oh come on! Just let me help!" He started toward the garbage cans. She stepped in front of him, "No offense, Percy, but I need you to leave right now." Her voice shook just a bit.

"Ouch, that one actually hurt."

"Sorry, my step-mom's going to be home soon." Speak of the devil. She could hear the car pulling into the garage, "Just let me help you clean up, there's no way I'm leaving until I help clean up!" She wanted to tell him to get out before the step-mom gets to mean, but he wouldn't listen, "Fine!"

She heard the unlocking of the door and prepared herself for battle. Annabeth saw her stunned expression when she found a boy in their house, "Annabeth, I thought I told you everyone had to be gone by ten. Or is this everyone?"

Her dad came in next, followed by her brothers, "Annabeth, who is this?" Her father looked about as mad as she'd ever seen him.

"Uh, dad this is my friend, Percy. Percy, my dad." Her step-mom cleared her throat.

"We'll talk about this later, Annabeth." Her dad gave her a stern look before continuing, "Could you please show Percy out?" she nodded. She felt ashamed of herself. Who was she thinking that she could try to explain this to her father?

"Wait," Percy said next to her. She had half a mind to tell him to be quiet, but she didn't dare. "Mr. Chase! It's not what you think!"

Her dad turned to look at Percy, obviously wanting to hear whatever excuse this boy could give him, "But isn't it?"

"No! We're friends! Jason, Thalia, Piper, Leo, Hazel and Frank were over here earlier. We were watching a movie. Everyone else left and I thought it'd be polite to help clean up. She told me to get out, I didn't listen. I'm sorry. Don't punish her for my stubbornness, please."

"Annabeth, please show him out." She nodded and took him to the front door.

She slammed it firmly behind them, "I'm sorry about them. She can be so, so- argh!"

He put his hands on her shoulders, trying to get her to stop shaking, "Calm down, I think you're in the clear!"

"Percy, my dad is going to kill me!"

"You'll be fine. He's going to have you go into his room and your step-mom's going to stay out there. He'll start off acting all stern in case she's listening, then he'll just laugh it off, trust me, I know!"

"You don't know my dad, Percy!"

"True, I don't, but my mom's boyfriend does the same thing." She became silent and nodded. He laughed before continuing, "As I was saying before I was interrupted for the second time," She noticed that he was clutching his hands in fists, "You should meet my mom…"

"What? Why?" She cried more out of surprise.

His sea green eyes flashed up to hers, and he looked like he was about to faint, "You seem like you'd get along pretty well. I just thought she'd like to meet the person I've been… uh… spending time with."

"I mean, yeah, sure. I guess I can meet her."

"Okay, cool, come on!" he grabbed her around the wrist and began dragging her behind him. Finally she was able to free her arm from him and stopped, "Percy, I can't! Not right now at least. My dad is waiting in there to possibly kill me for what he thinks I've done!"

"Oh right, I forgot."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then." She said backing away slightly. He nodded quickly and began to walk away. She saw him hesitate to leave, then felt herself hesitate as well, "Percy, wait!" he turned around quickly, "It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow…" he was walking back toward her, "I could go tomorrow…." She said hopeful.

He stopped just barely in front of her and gave a quick nod, "It's a date then!" Her eyes widened with his choice of words, and then the weight of his words hit him as well, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow? Around noon? I can pick you up." She nodded and then he was gone.

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed! If you have anything you think I could do better, please let me know! This is to make up for the amount of times I've been really slow for updating! Thanks!**

**-Swimmy**


	6. Good Luck?

**A/N: Hello, again lovelies! Just below is again Chapter Six! Whoo! It's definitely shorter than the last one, so I'm sorry! Thanks to all of those who favorited and followed the story, you're all amazing!**

**sportsfanforever2: thanks! I hope that this update was fast enough for you! I hope you enjoy it, I really love writing this story!**

**firefly9917: well here's the chapter you couldn't wait to see, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: I guess you can say "I told you so" I'm sorry that this chapter doesn't have as much in depth of the character's mind here, I was kind of wanting to redo this chapter, but I figured I was happy with what I had gotten so far. The next will have more inside of the character's mind.**

**Daughterofthesea13: thank you so much and I hope that my knee will get better after the surgery :)**

**WarpzoneGirl: "AWWWWW" is totally correct, I love them and this is so cute!**

**Without any further distraction, I give you: chapter six, Good Luck?**

She woke up the next morning to the sound of the shutters hitting the house and the rain pelting the siding. She didn't feel so bad, just a little tired.

Then she remembered the night before, Percy had been right. Her dad had started off booming and loud, telling her she was irresponsible to be alone with a boy. But quickly his voice dropped to a whisper and said, "I don't really think that. He seems like a perfectly sensible boy. I'm only doing this to make your mother happy." Her mother. Sue was not her mother. She was her step-mother.

Oh, God. Percy. He'd be here in less than an hour. Yes, Annabeth Chase had overslept. Hush. It was a very rare occurrence, but it did on occasion happen. That occasion just happened to be the day she needed to look like she wasn't a zombie.

She decided it was perfectly okay to go in yet another one of her t-shirts. Today it was blue with some faded writing that she could no longer read on it. Her hair was pulled up again into a ponytail and she put on some longer jean shorts.

She was just finishing up her breakfast when she heard the doorbell. And of course, who got to the door before her? Matthew and Bobby. And they felt the need to interrogate him, "How do you feel about our sister?" She saw him go slightly red as he stammered to respond, "Um, well… where is Annabeth?"

"Are you her boyfriend?"

"Do you love her?"

"How do you feel about us?"

"Are we cool enough for you?"

Percy looked as though he were being mentally scarred, and that was when Annabeth decided it was a good time to step in, "Boys, go back to the kitchen, please." She cooed softly. She may have sounded like she was in control, but really she was this mass of chaos swirling everywhere. She just had practice with this kind of control.

Percy let out a sigh of relief when her brothers backed off, "Don't think you're getting off the hook this time, Percy." She said with a sparkle in her eyes. He mocked pain in his chest, "You wound me!" he cried dramatically. She just laughed.

She took his face and turned it to see the bruises that clustered along his cheeks and jaw. They had begun to change to an ugly, blotched purple and blue mass, "Geez, what is it with women wanting to touch my bruises?" he demanded after he let out a shriek of pain.

"It's a woman thing, sorry!"

"Fine, let's go!"

When they got to his condo, Mrs. Jackson came out of a room that was adjoined to the entry way. She was rambling about something, but stopped when she saw the girl standing next to Percy, "Oh! Do I know you?"

"I don't believe so. I'm Annabeth Chase, one of Percy's friends." She replied simply. His mom's arms crossed her chest and giving him the glare that he really hated seeing. She heard him groan.

"Perseus Jackson! Why didn't you tell me that you were having a friend over?" she demanded in an angry tone. She stood there impatiently waiting for his answer; the answer never came. He stuttered and stumbled along to find an answer, "Uh, well, you see, um… I- I-… ummm…"

"Is he always like this around you?" his mom asked pointedly. Annabeth couldn't help but laugh at him. Once she finally got a hold of herself, she nodded and Mrs. Jackson looked at her, "It's a surprise he has friends at all when he's like that around girls like you." She felt herself blush. His mom continued, "Next time tell me when you're having a… friend over."

"Uh, actually mom, she is probably more of your friend. You two are pretty similar, just saying."

"Percy don't compare me to her, it's demeaning to her." Mrs. Jackson said with a hint of blush on her cheeks.

And so they went on talking and laughing together for hours about things they've done, or anything that they found interesting. But then Sally stopped, "Annabeth, are you and Percy…"

"Percy and I...?" She asked just as confused as Sally.

Sally grunted, "Are you two dating?"

This time she went bright red instead of tan, "Er, uh, I don't really think so… why?"

"Well no reason in particular, he just seemed somewhat interested in you…"

"Mom!" they both heard him call from another room. They giggled quietly.

Annabeth saw the clock and realized what time it was: 4:07. Crap, she had to leave, "I'm so sorry, Sally, I have to go." She gave the older woman a hug then waved goodbye to her as Percy opened the front door.

They walked in silence for a while, "Listen Annabeth-"

"Percy-" they both said at the same time. She blushed and nodded for him to go first. To this he sighed.

"Annabeth, I really don't know if I want to go back in your house and be torn to pieces by your younger brothers again." She knew that he was going to say something else, but let it slip past.

Instead, she just smirked and stopped walking, "Too bad. I mean I thought you were strong since you've been dealing with all of these bad bruises and all," she reached over and pinched his good side to which he yelped.

"Ow, wise girl! Watch where you pinch people!" he cried.

She couldn't help but continue to laugh as they walked up to the drive of her house, "So can I get a kiss for good luck?" she continued to stay quiet until they reached the front door.

Before he knew what had happened, he felt her lips against his. A quick kiss. Then she was gone with a "Bye, Percy!"

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**A/N: Thank you so much for reading this chapter, you are all amazing for doing just that. I'm sorry for the horrible sense of this chapter. It's been a harder one to write. I'm sorry! But stay tuned it for the next one!**

**Love you all!**

**-Swimmy**


	7. More than just Luck?

**A/N: Hello! I know a second time that I've posted two chapters in two days. I'm sure you're all excited that I am! I love weekends because they give me so much more time to do this! Yay! I switched back to Percy's POV for this one because it seemed like it was best that way. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks, again to those who favorited and followed this story, you're all the best! I feel so blessed that people like this story enough to do that for me! :) You are all the best!**

**sportsfanforever2: Thanks! Well here's the next chapter extra early! *smiles extra brightly* I'm so glad that you find this story that enjoyable!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: so I take it you had some Percabeth feels? I hope so… I know I did when I was writing the last one :) You should enjoy this one as well! I've switched back to Percy's POV because I missed writing from his viewpoint and thought it'd make this chapter a bit better! Enjoy!**

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter! **

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Percy felt like he had stared at the door for a good five minutes just trying to figure out what to do. He didn't know if Annabeth was thinking the same thing he was; if she was wondering what she'd done or, why she'd done it. But then he remembered that Annabeth was one of those girls who had everything figured out. He wished he were like that right now, because how was he supposed to understand the mind of a female?!

He walked home in a state of disbelief plastered to his mind. And although his mind did wander from Annabeth every once in a while, but that was only to stray to the idea of food.

Of course, though, his mom picked up on his change in mood and began questioning it immediately, "What happened? What did you do to her?"

He sat down in the living room chair and looked up at his mom. Her eyes looked like they were worried about him, but he didn't know why. He sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees, "She kissed me, mom." Sally's eyes began to sparkle again.

"Oh, really?" She asked.

Percy nodded, not really sure what else to do.

"And…?" She pried from her son. He shrugged, nothing was spoken and Sally knew exactly what that meant, "You don't know, do you?"

"No, I don't." he sighed and stood up, "I'm going to go swim, I'll be there for a few hours or so." He got up and started packing his swim bag and threw it over his shoulders. He knew that a good long swim would help put everything in perspective.

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He had swum for years, and he could never remember a time that before this summer that he hadn't. But of course that really wasn't his own choice to make. Surgery made that decision pretty clear for him. A shoulder surgery would take about six months to heal completely from so he'd just hit his seventh month out of exercise and decided that now would be a great time to start!

So he would start off with just kicking to see how he felt. And honestly he felt slower than the seventy-something year old man that had no experience swimming in the lane next to him. He worked up to a little bit of freestyle, but was taking profuse amounts of time to rest after about a hundred. He felt so upset with himself for hurting himself, but hey at least his mind was off of Annabeth!

He pulled out his kickboard again and began kicking once more. He scoped the whole pool area and his eyes landed on a pretty blonde girl. Honestly if he hadn't known better, he would've been sure it was Annabeth. The girl was reading something on the bleachers, not even thinking to get in the water like any normal person would do.

Then he saw two little boys swim up to the side of the pool and attempt to splash her, "Matthew, Bobby! Stop it!" He heard the girl shriek, throwing her book far behind her as if to save it. Her head whipped around furiously, and he caught her eyes quickly. The girl had gray eyes. It was Annabeth. Fortunately she hadn't noticed him yet. If she did, that would be mortifying. He'd probably move to Alaska and change his name to Chuck. Yeah, that's exactly what he would do.

One of her brothers got out of the pool and told her something and her eyes automatically snapped to Percy. Great, just great. He saw her go red and look away, letting her ponytail block her eyes. Percy knew this move all too well from his school back in New York. Girls did that when they didn't want boys knowing that they were watching you.

She didn't get up and come over to him, so Percy was more than grateful for that, but once he'd wrapped his towel around his waist and slung his bag over his shoulder, he knew he'd have to walk by her, giving her a good opportunity to talk with him.

He saw her look up at him when he was nearing her, and then she set down her book. Not a good sign for him. He tried to hurry past her, but she caught his elbow, "Percy?" she asked not even looking at his eyes. He turned back around, gathering as much courage as he could, but honestly he felt like he was going to be sick, "Uh, yeah. Hey." He gave her an awkward wave. He felt totally out of his element. Why did he have to egg her on to kiss him for "good luck"? Why did he have to be so charmingly handsome that she listened?

"Uh listen, I'm sorry about-" his stomach dropped. No his heart didn't stop, because that would be even more clichéd than this.

"Why are you sorry?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest. He looked at her for an answer.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Well, obviously because it's just really awkward and tense between us."

"Then let's make it less awkward or tense…"

"Annabeth!" He heard someone shout. Luke. He worked of all places at a rec center, "How are you? I haven't seen you in forever." So now the guy was all happy-go-lucky and wanted to actually talk to her, "Anyway, I'm having a party tonight, would you want to come?" She looked over at Percy who was standing there uncomfortably.

Still she shrugged and replied, "I don't know, maybe. I'll see what I can do." With a curt nod, Luke was gone.

"Sorry about that… I don't know why he does that…." _"Obviously it's because he __**likes **__you!_" Percy's internal monologue cried, but didn't say anything.

"Well I'm sorry if I was interrupting you or anything." He didn't mean for it to come out harsh, but it did.

"Percy!" She cried with frustration. She caught a few of his fingers and whipped him back to her, "You weren't. Actually I'm glad I saw you." If Percy was being honest, he loved it when she blushed because it was kind of cute to him. Okay, so more than just a little cute, it was freaking adorable and he knew it.

"So why were you swimming here?"

"Ahh, getting down to the real questions are you, Ms. Chase?" he laughed, "Well I felt like I needed to swim, so I paid to swim here. Nice pool." He added faintly. He could still feel her hand tinkering with his fingers. And before he could stop himself, he was leaning closer to her. She wasn't stopping and neither was he, and finally he kissed her.

He could feel her fingers begin twirling his hair, and he'd be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy it.

He finally pulled away and saw her smiling, "Wow, Wise Girl, who knew you could kiss like that…" She glared at him, but didn't dare pull away.

Instead she said, "Who knew you even knew how to kiss with your head full of seaweed." He laughed at that one. Then he pulled back a little, "So do you want to go out some time? Er, like, um more than uh friends?"

"Hm… I mean I'll have to clear my entire schedule, and that might take some-" He was looking at her with those huge eyes and pouted lips, and she couldn't take that look much longer, "Geez, Percy, no need to make me feel so guilty. Of course I will!" She punched him in the arm.

"So I'll talk to you later- er I mean that I'll find- no I didn't mean it like that!"

"I know, Percy. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" he started to wave and move away from her, when the logical side of her realized that she needed to get his number, "Wait, Percy! Umm, I don't have your number…" He nodded.

"Well if you wanted it Chase, all you had to do was ask earlier." He laughed writing it down on her hand. Okay, the pen may have shaken and made the numbers kind of hard to read, but he still gave it to her!

Percy had never felt so giddy in his life and was utterly ecstatic that she was going on a date with Annabeth Chase. Wait, he was going on a date with Annabeth Chase. He had to look nice; well at least decent. He had to get a restaurant booked… but he didn't even have a day. He was so helpless.

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed! If you have anything you think I could do better, please let me know! This is to make up for the amount of times I've been really slow for updating or when I don't have time to update! Thanks!**

**-Swimmy**


	8. Trust is Earned

**A/N: I'm back! With, yes, another chapter that you will like! I really hope you like this one. I mean it is a little bit slower than the last because well you can't just go from this amazing chapter to yet another one. (Not that this one isn't amazing, it's just amazing in a very, very different way!)**

**Thanks to all of my favorites and follows, you all ROCK! BEST PEOPLE EVER!**

**wiseone13: well here's the newest update, I hope you enjoy it! And thanks, I'm really glad you like it! Reviews like this make me feel so happy and satisfied with my work!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: I know that last chapter struck all the feels! I felt it myself and I felt so happy and justified writing it. I was just like "aw yes, this chapter pleases my feels." Hahaha!**

**henrie locker: I love when I get reviews from the same person over a span of chapters because it makes me feel so happy and just amazing because there's this person that keeps reviewing with all of these positive comments and making my day. Then I realize that that person is you, and I just die of happiness because you are so nice and I love when I see these reviews! Thanks so much for continuously reviewing this story!**

**Without any further wait, I give you Chapter 8: Trust to be Earned**

When he walked back into the condo after his practice, his mom immediately noticed a change in his mood and began to smile at his amusement, "Percy! You look very happy." He nodded while chugging a glass of water, "Would you like to share why?" He shook his head with a smile still planted on his face. He kissed her cheek and Sally accepted it as a sign of endearment. But honestly, though, she wasn't going to let him get away with it that easily.

She sighed, "Percy, just tell me."

"Nope, I want to keep it a secret." He blushed.

Sally rolled her eyes at his antics, "Whatever you say, dear. I could just ask Annabeth, you know because we are such good friends." She had that same smirk that Percy had. Percy's mind automatically went to Annabeth and he felt like he was beginning to blush. And that Sally did pick up on. She knew she would have to pry it from later when he was tired. When Percy was tired, he would slip out just about any of his secrets. It was a beautiful and powerful weapon that Sally only used in situations such as these.

Percy groaned unhappily, "If I knew you would use my friends against me, I would never have introduced you to them, mom!" She laughed quietly.

Then she heard his phone start to buzz and she saw him jump a bit, "Uh, sorry mom, it's Annabeth. I'll be right back…"

He ran into another room away from the kitchen, "Hey, what's up?"

She sighed on the other end, and he realized that she was frustrated, "The step-monster is raging over here."

"What's the deal with you two? You don't seem to get along…"Percy asked. There was a pause, and finally she answered. "That's like saying the Greek architecture was just okay." Percy knew absolutely nothing about architecture, but figured that it was pretty good.

"Oh, that makes sense. So you're abusing your rights to have my phone number already, Chase?" he teased her.

"What makes you think that you wouldn't be doing the same thing if you were in this situation?"

"True, so why did you call? Not that I'm mad or anything… just curious."

Then all he heard was a jumble of words that made absolutely no sense to him, "What was that?" there was the jumble of words yet again, "Annabeth, slow down, I can't understand anything you're saying."

"Do you want to come over for dinner and make it at least a little bearable?"

"Hm? What was that? It was still a little too fast for me to understand…" he was smiling, knowing he was just annoying her.

"I hate you so much, Percy."

"I'll be over, don't start without me."

"Oh, okay. See you in a bit."

"Yeah, yeah, Chase." He smiled even though he sounded frustrated.

And so he was off again. His mom may have been a little bit more suspicious this time about where he was going and as to why, but she would save her questions until later because she knew Percy would be tired after dinner.

He arrived at Annabeth's house not long after he said he would. He knocked on the wooden door. And so what if he was just standing there contemplating the whole action because what if his knocking made him sound like an idiot?

Annabeth answered the door and to be honest she looked pretty stressed out. Her hair was half falling out of her ponytail and her eyes were pleading, "Took you long enough." She said and just like that her eyes were lively and happy again. It made him wonder if her eyes had ever been any different.

"Oh, please, just because you're good at being on time doesn't mean that everyone is!" he mocked offense. He stepped around her into the house. To be honest it smelled amazing, and Percy was more psyched about the food than he was to see Annabeth…. Don't judge, he's a growing teenage boy who has one of the fastest metabolisms ever!

"In here." She said before grabbing him around the wrist and dragging him into the kitchen. There was a large table sitting off toward the edge of the room. Everyone's eyes shot up to them when they saw them enter, "Uh, hi." Great. His first words to her parents and he sounded like he was similar to every other teenage guy ever. Great.

Mr. Chase jumped up and stuck his hand out to Percy, "I'm Annabeth's father, Mr. Chase."

"I'm Percy, nice to meet you." There! See that was what he had wanted to say to them at first, but no, it had to be 'uh, hi'. Real smooth, Percy.

"Well come on, I hear you're a swimmer. Aren't they always hungry?" Percy just laughed, knowing it was true.

Once they had finally sat down, Annabeth began to introduce everyone, "This is Bobby and Matthew; they're twins." She pointed to one then the other, and Percy knew that no matter how many differences between the two that there were, he was still going to mix them up.

Then Annabeth pointed at a small petite woman that he was willing to guess was Mrs. Chase. And that was exactly what Annabeth said next, "That is Sue." Whoa, did someone just change the temperature in here because it just suddenly felt really cold.

Annabeth didn't make eye contact with the woman across the table from her, and that made Percy feel even more awkward.

But just as soon as it had come, the coldness passed. The warm environment of the Chase's was back just as quick. Dinner passed by quickly and with many laughs as they laughed at Percy's stories. That was until Sue spoke up, "So Percy, what's your family like?"

He stumbled on that one, "I live with my mom and her boyfriend, Paul. Just the three of us in a small apartment."

"What about your dad?" He knew he should've been more upset by the prying, but honestly it was in anyone's nature just to be curious.

"I never knew him very well. He's in and out of my life. My mom never told me about him…" The room was tense again, and he wanted to make the tension just go away. But it was there and he knew it would refuse to dissipate because he could just feel the pity stares coming from Sue and Mr. Chase.

Percy cleared his throat, "I'll be right back." He walked outside and sat down on the front step. The sun was just setting so the temperature was beginning to drop to a less humid, breezy, cool night.

He heard the door behind him shut again. Annabeth was sitting next to him again, and he could just register the heat radiating from her arms, "Sorry, it's just it was awkward and I can't handle that anymore."

"Percy, I'm sensing that there's more to this story than you're letting on, you know you can trust me, right?" To be honest, he knew that he could trust Annabeth, but he also knew she didn't trust him with her whole past.

"You may be right, and I might trust you, but you don't trust me." He said in a cool, smooth voice.

"Don't be stupid, Seaweed Brain. Of course I trust you!" And he watched patiently as it dawned on her that she had avoided talking about her past just earlier. She finally looked away from him, "Oh, that. You don't want to know. It's messy."

"So is mine, but that changes nothing, Annabeth."

She sighed, "I know, it's just the last person I trusted with it was Luke." And he could only imagine where that story went from there, "Well, he was kind of involved in it…"

"Hey, it's okay, you don't have to tell me anything, okay? Tell me when you're ready."

"You, too Percy. Promise me?" She held out her pinky to him and he shook it with his own.

"Pinky promise." He replied.

**A/N: If you want to you can let me know what I can do better in the future! Thanks again for all of your support, you are all amazing for doing that for me!**

**-Swimmy**


	9. Fighting with a Chance of Spaghetti

**A/N: Hello, all! You are so lovely for reading this, because I feel so special that people are actually interested in reading this story! It makes my day to hear from you or see that I have more follows or more people have put this story in their favorites. Honestly, it makes me feel so, so, so, so amazing. Thank you.**

**(SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT!) In addition to that, I have a little less than two weeks until my knee surgery, so it is possible that this is my last update for a while. I have four days left of school before I go on break for Easter, so I don't think I'll be updating during this period because I really, really need a break from all the stress. You all may be upset and think, "I won't mind if it doesn't sound the best, as long I get another chapter up," but the thing is, I wouldn't be proud of it, and that's one thing that I pride myself on. I'm sorry for that.**

**So now to my reviews:**

**wiseone13: Aw, shucks, thanks. I'm utterly ecstatic that you thought so! I hope you enjoy this one!**

**firefly9917: I know, I love Sally! She's a great character and I know that she may be a little (or a lot) OOC, so I'm sorry if anyone thinks so!**

**Austin3Perabeth: You may just get your idea :) You'll just have to read this chapter and find out! Hahaha! I hope you won't be disappointed! It was an amazing idea, honestly. I could see that actually happening so it works perfectly!**

**Austin: haha! I know, right?! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

**sportsfanforever2: I know, I needed to update, it had been a while.**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: Hahaha, I know! I hope it's not too much how I make them talk and how they interact, I've been trying to be good about making it not too terribly OOC! I hope you like this one as well!**

**Without any further distraction, I give you Chapter 9: Fighting with a Chance of Spaghetti**

"Let's head back in." he said tugging on her wrist until she looked up at him. He heard her sigh behind him, and realized they were both still planted firmly where they had been. Eventually she nodded and followed him back in.

They sat back down at the table, and there was that tense feeling again. He heard someone mutter something, but Owl Ears next to him must have because anything she may have been thinking or showing on her face was wiped clean away. She was showing a look of pure hatred, "What was that, Sue?"

Then Percy realized that Mr. Chase was no longer in the room and he knew that this was _not _going to end well, "Do I need to speak louder, Annie?" Sue said with a sweet, innocent smile playing on her lips. Percy had no idea something the name 'Annie' could upset her.

He saw the glowering of her eyes as she looked up at Sue, "Don't call me that." She said with an edge to her voice.

"I said maybe next time you should warn us so we don't make Percy so uncomfortable." Percy knew that was a lie, she hadn't said anything close to that. And he guessed that Annabeth knew the same. Now Annabeth was standing up towering over the table. Her gray eyes looked like she was tempting Sue to say it again. Her lips curled in a sneer as she spat her words, "You talked about my mother."

And even though Sue was a petite woman, when she stood, she looked almost more intimidating than Annabeth, "Oh, I that," Her step-mother's smile was turned cruel, "I just wished that my step-daughter was smarter."

_OH SNAP!_ Percy thought. He knew he should probably try to separate them before anything serious happened. He also wished that Mr. Chase would hear them, but he also knew that they were keeping their voices down for a reason.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm not smart enough for you? Too bad! I don't live to please you, Sue!"

"I deserve respect, not any of this. You are such a horrible child, Annabeth."

"I don't even know why my dad married you! All you do is make everything worse!"

"I make it worse?! Please, Annie, you're the only one in this family that doesn't like me!"

"That's because those two are your sons!"

"Your father doesn't hate me!"

"I sure wish he did! And I'm still surprised that the twins don't hate you! They should."

Percy saw the twins out of the corner of his eye begin to throw food in each other's face, but he figured the real pressing matter was Sue and Annabeth at the moment.

He tried pulling on Annabeth's wrist, but she didn't even turn to look at him. He didn't know what to do. Normally she was the rational one, but at the moment, it seemed that her judgment was impaired. He tried to think of what to do, and decided it would be best to just step in front of them. Yeah, great idea, Percy.

As soon as he tried to get in front of Annabeth, she shot him a glare. He knew she was probably trying to tell him to get away, but he was not going to listen. No matter how scary she was when she was mad.

And that was when he saw the first glob of food begin to fly. He turned to see who the culprit was, and to his honest surprise, it was Sue. Freaking instigator that one was. He knew Annabeth was going to retaliate, so he turned to stop her, but she had already released her load of food and it hit Sue right in the face. Now instead of the nice pristine woman he had thought she was, she had spaghetti sauce staining her face.

She continued to taunt Annabeth, "You throw worse than my mother!"

"Annabeth, no!" He was still trying to talk some sense into her, but it seemed like she was oblivious and she picked up some more noodles and launched them across the room, "You know if I'm so bad at throwing how come I never miss my target?!" She demanded as yet another round of spaghetti was thrown between the two.

And now, things got real. They began throwing blindly with rage and he was _covered _in sauce and milk.

"Why don't you just run away again, Annie?" She faltered in her throw. Her façade of rage gone and replaced with shock. But hey, this is Annabeth remember? So obviously that didn't last long before she launched another round of spaghetti.

Percy had had just about enough. More than enough.

Annabeth had backed up enough that he could get on a chair in between the two of them. And that's exactly what he did, "Everyone just shut up!" he yelled and surprisingly, they all listened. Well for a moment that is.

"See what you did, Annabeth! You made him uncomfortable!" Sue raged, now picking up a plate and chucking it at Annabeth's head. She dodged quickly and grabbed a plastic cup from the table and chucked it at Sue. Only it didn't hit Sue, it hit Percy.

Now Percy was mad. He got off the chair and just wrapped his arms around Annabeth, so that she could no longer move her arms. She was stuck. He started to pick her and she was kicking and screaming for him to let her go. The last thing he heard was, "Yeah, run away, Annie! You've already done that!"

Then Mr. Chase came in, without any prior knowledge of the situation. He looked to his wife for some sort of explanation, "She's crazy, Frederick! She just started launching things at me. I admit I said some things I should not have, but she provoked me." Crazy step-mom. Percy was about one hundred percent sure that Sue and Smelly Gabe would've gotten along quite well.

Her dad turned on her, "Annabeth, why would you do that?" Wait, what? He was actually going to believe that? What was he thinking?!

"Annabeth-" but she cut him off.

"Come on, Percy. Let's get out of here." And for the first time, she entwined her fingers in his. Now maybe it was as a sign of defiance to her parents, but hey, a beautiful girl holds your hand and let me tell you I was not going to try to make her more rational. So yeah, his mind may have gone fuzzy and he just followed her out.

He could tell from her red face that she was trying to hold back her tears.

Once they were far enough from her house, he wrapped her in a hug, "Annabeth, calm down. You're going to be fine." He said rubbing her back. She just continued to sob into his button down shirt.

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"You had to watch that." She said weakly.

He shrugged as if it were nothing, but honestly that was just about as bad as him and Gabe.

Then he remembered Sue saying something else, "Did you run away?" he asked because he was going to be impulsive. It's no big deal. It's just his stupid brain not thinking correctly and being rather forward about _everything_.

"Percy I really don't think now's the best time. Honestly, I'll tell you when I'm ready." He nodded.

They walked back to his condo in silence. It was nice though. It was a good night and he liked to walk in silence.

When they got back to his condo, his mom yelled his name, "Percy, is that you?" She set down the paper she had been writing all over. He saw his mom take in the situation quickly. He saw her focus on Annabeth longer, though.

"Annabeth, are you alright?" That's what he loved about his mom, she was always there for others. She barely even knew Annabeth, but here she was concerned for her. He smiled knowing just how amazing his mom was.

He saw Annabeth give her a shaky nod, but he knew his mom would have none of this "being strong in the face of conflict". And that's exactly what she did. He saw his mom stand up and give her a hug, not even caring that she was covered in sauce.

Percy loved his mom so much. She was the kindest, sweetest person to ever walk the earth.

"Annabeth, you can trust me. I won't get mad at you, I promise." She shook her head again, and Percy knew that Annabeth was just as stubborn as he was, but he was not letting her get away with that.

Percy sighed, "She got in a fight with her step-mom. She doesn't want to go back." So Annabeth hadn't confessed as much to him, but he knew the feeling. Getting yelled at by a step-parent was so damaging and it hurt.

When Smelly Gabe yelled at him, he would brush it off, but when he yelled at his mom, he knew that he didn't want to go home and see that. That was the part of it that hurt. And the fact that she did it to protect him. His mom put up with so much and he knew she must've hated going home after work; Annabeth had to be feeling the same way, right?

"Percy…" Annabeth was looking down at the ground. She was giving him a quiet warning not to make it worse than she had thought it was.

"Annabeth." He said turning to face her, "You just got screamed at by Sue, I don't think you want to go back there!"

His mom had disappeared for a few minutes and when she returned she had a towel and wash cloth in her arms, "No sense arguing about that right now, I've already started a shower for you." She nodded toward her bathroom.

He saw her blush and then follow his mom to the bathroom.

When his mom came out with her dirtied clothes, she asked him, "What happened?"

"Her step-mom kept yelling at her that she wasn't smart enough then it escalated. They started chucking food at each other and then plates. Her dad came back downstairs and Sue blamed the whole ordeal on Annabeth. He believed it, too. Sue kept on mentioning that it would be better if Annabeth just ran away again." He sighed, "I don't know what that means."

"Percy, you know we have that extra small room. They messed up what kind of room we had booked, but now I'm thinking it was Fate. There's a clean bed in there. It may not be her house or her room, but it's better than having to live in a house of horrible people. She can always stay here. I don't mind."

He nodded, giving his mom a big hug, "Thanks mom, you're the best." He planted a kiss on Sally's cheek.

**A/N: Thanks for reading this again, you are all so amazing and I cherish every time I see someone has read it, I get really happy! ****If you want to you can let me know what I can do better in the future! Thanks again for all of your support, you are all amazing for doing that for me!**

**-Swimmy**


	10. Truths be Told

**A/N: Hey all Happy Easter! I hope you had a beautiful and amazing Spring Break! I'll write more on my surgery next time, I really don't want to talk about it right now.**

**Fluffybunnies123: thanks! It'll take some time to recover, but I'll get there eventually! I hope you like this chapter!**

**Wiseone13: I'm glad you can't wait for this chapter! I loved writing this one and I hope you love reading it!**

**Love it: I did! Happy? Hahahaha I sure hope so! I hope you enjoy this one as well! :)**

**Sportsfanforever: Awwe, shucks! Thnaks! I love when I get something like that… I was hoping others thought it was super sweet of Sally and Percy! I really hope you enjoy this one as well!**

**Austin3Perabet: Hahahaha I debated for so long about making the cup glass or plastic, but I figured that Sue (trying to be a responsible parent) wouldn't want her darling sons to be anywhere near glass because HEAVEN FORBID it breaks! Hahaha!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: I know! I love Sally so much! Sue is horrible, but I love to write her! She's such an amazingly complex character to write! I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well!**

**Henrie locker: I'm fangirling right now because SOMEONE LOVES MY STORY! FAKDJJFKLAJDFKJALKFJLDKJFKADJSFLKJADLFJA! NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE MY HAPPINESS AT THIS! WOOOHOOOO! YAY!**

**Enjoy this chapter, it's full of good information (I personally believe that…)! Without any more of a wait (and yes, it has been a while for all of you, I know (sorry!)) I give you Chapter 10: Truths Be Told!**

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Sally had kindly lent me one of Percy's _clean _shirts and had gone and cleaned my clothes while I was scrubbing the tomato sauce off of my body. She had obviously been back in since my clothes were lying on the counter.

Instead of putting on her own shirt, she decided to be adventurous and put on Percy's shirt. It was orange and upon inspection she noticed that written on it was, "Camp Half-Blood". She stared at it in disbelief. It was like she was reliving her past.

Annabeth heard him knock on the door, "Hey, how are you doing in there?"

She blushed, "I'm doing fine, I'll be right out!" She called back to him. Annabeth took on last look in the mirror before opening the door. Percy was leaning against the wall and looked super pleased with himself, "Clean?" He asked in a teasing voice.

She nodded, then pulled at the shirt, "What is this?" She didn't mean for it to sound so accusatory, but it in fact came out that way. Of course Percy being the very suave and quick-witted person he was, just stammered along, "Well, uh, you see-"

"No, where did you get this?"

"Oh, yeah I went to some camp when I was a little kid… you know… like I would ever go there since I'm a teen!" he replied awkwardly. Annabeth laughed awkwardly. She knew that he was missing a piece of his brain to the seaweed that was clogging it up so she filled it in anyway, "Percy, I went there… I still do. This is the first summer that I didn't go."

Percy looked at her like she was insane, "What cabin were you in?"

"Athena, apparently unlike most ADHD and Dyslexic kids I am smarter than average…" she shrugged, "You?"

"Poseidon. How did I miss you?"

If she was going to tell him any of that she would have to end up sharing her story, and she wasn't sure if she was ready for that. Annabeth knew that she had already scarred him with the dinner he came to tonight, but maybe that was enough?

She heard him sigh, "Annabeth, you can tell me anything. Just go ahead and tell me! I trust you, maybe you can trust me." She nodded, but sat down in one of the living room chairs. She took a deep breath, "I ran away when I was seven."

"Wait, that's it?" She knew he expected something _way _worse than that, but that was only the beginning.

She shook her head and took yet another (of many) deep breath(s), "I ran away from California to New York, when I was seven." She looked away from his stare, "Sue and my dad kept blaming me for all of these really weird things that were happening. I don't even remember what it was for," That was a lie, she knew exactly what it was for. It was for her problems following her. People would leave threatening notes for her family just for being her mother's daughter. People who hated her mother wanted to see her dead, her and her family, "Anyway," She shook the few tears out of her eyes; she hated crying in front of people, "One night I overheard Sue and my dad talking about how this was getting out of hand and that I needed to go back with my mother because I was causing so many problems for their newly founded family. It hurt a lot. I thought my dad understood everything, but obviously he didn't. That night, I packed a backpack with a change of clothes, some money that my dad had left sitting in his wallet, and some canned food. Then I was gone.

"I ran into Thalia at one point, and she helped me along the way. I didn't know it when she found me, but she had also run away from her home. We traveled cross-country together. We-"

"Luke was with her, wasn't he?" Percy asked shyly.

Annabeth bit her lip and slowly nodded, "Yeah, he was camping with Thalia when I ran into them. He told me that they were my new family. And for a while it was great. So I may have gotten this crush on him… and honestly what little girl wouldn't. This nice looking boy that's older than you and told you he cared about you!" She shook her head absentmindedly.

"Well they helped me along the way. They never yelled at me for making their lives harder, even though I know it did. They helped teach me how to fight and use a dagger. They were my family for years. They were the only ones I trusted, then Grover found us. We were half-dead and still trying to move. We were stronger than normal kids; we knew how to fight, and when he found us he started to take us to Camp. We weren't moving quickly enough. Just at the gate to Camp, this massive group of guys that had been hunting us and following us cross-country caught up and we were screwed. It was late at night and there was no one waiting for us. No one to come and help us.

"Imagine it, ten or fifteen guys against three and a half people. Grover was not very helpful. He just got scared. Very hard. Thalia took a knife and bullet to get her down. Luke and I didn't even notice her down. She would've hated if we had noticed her down. She would've yelled at us not to be such 'pansies' and to keep fighting then continue to fight herself.

"Eventually we got enough of a break that we hauled Thalia and Luke and Grover into the gate. With an eerie silence we shut the gate." Annabeth was shaking by time she got to this part, but Percy made no move to comfort her. She didn't want him to, it would be too much for her.

"When we got inside the walls, I blacked out. I went through a lot. I went into shock and my brain wasn't able to comprehend what had happened, so it shut down. I woke up after a while, Chiron wouldn't tell me how it had been; I felt stiff, dull, but burning pain in my back and I reached my hand back there, and I found stitches. I had a nasty cut from one of the daggers or knives that the people used against me.

She took a shaky breath, "Then I asked about Thalia, and he didn't want me to know right away, you know how Chiron is with that kind of stuff. So he led me around Camp and gave me this whole long tour, but the only question I would ask is for Thalia. Finally he brought me to her.

"She was in a coma since we had arrived. She still was alive, but needed to sleep. She was like my sister, and to see her in such a vulnerable way was more emotionally and mentally damaging than anything I went through. I thought she was dead." Tears were streaming down her face remembering an even paler Thalia lying in that bed looking so arranged. She looked like she was about to be put in her casket for her funeral. She looked dead." She kept attempting to wipe away the tears, but every time one was wiped away, it was like three more came in its place.

"Luke became distant from me and we rarely talked to each other until I reached high school. By this time he was about eighteen or nineteen. That's when he started to talk to me again, and well I still liked him and he liked me…. That's the end of my story." She wouldn't go into detail about Luke and her relationship. It wouldn't be fair to him.

He nodded and moved to give her a bear hug, "It's okay Annabeth, I know how it sucks to be torn from family to another family."

"You said you'd tell me your story once I told you mine."

He nodded back at her, and she knew that he was going to try to get out of it, but hell, she had just shared her whole life's story. He was going to share his even if he didn't want to.

"You can tell me yours." He nodded and sat back down on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped, "I feel like I'm at the therapist's." he muttered and Annabeth grinned a little bit at that.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading this again, you are all so amazing and I cherish every time I see someone has read it, I get really happy! ****If you want to you can let me know what I can do better in the future! Thanks again for all of your support, you are all amazing for doing that for me!**

**Love you all!**

**-Swimmy**


	11. A Story Shared

**A/N: Hello my amazing readers! I'm so sorry that it's taken forever to get this chapter up, you know school has just been crazy and I was so tired every night! Anyway, finally I have it up!**

**Thanks to all those who followed or favorited this story! You're the best! I love you all for doing that!**

**Reviews:**

**Jimtrix: Thanks! I tried to tie everything together, but I was afraid that it was going to be so different! I'm glad that you liked it!**

**Guest: Awwe shucks, Guest, that's nice :)**

**Headhurts: here's the update! Haha I hope you enjoy this one as well!**

**Austin3Percabet (more like Austin3Percabet**_**h**_**): I thought it was smart to use a plastic cup. I really didn't want to hurt him too badly because that would be kind of mean, but a good solution was plastic! Haha! I hate when the full name won't fit onto the pen name area! Grr!**

**Thedancinglight: I know, there are a few pieces of grammar that confuse me :(. And I know I know I need to put in more surfing scenes, it's just I've been trying to learn as many terms for surfing because I don't want to make myself sound so unintelligible about the sport… I'm working on some pieces focusing on her surfing now, though! And thank you!**

**henrie locker: Thanks! I plan on keeping this story up and just as good!**

**wiseone13: I hope that you like his story. That's what this chapter focuses on!**

**Daughterofthesea13: I will definitely keep this story going, thanks!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: Awwe shucks, that means a lot to me! I liked how it advanced the characters and their relationships. It solidified a lot of things for me and for the story! Thank you!**

**Without further distraction, I give you Chapter 11: A Story Shared!**

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Percy sat wringing his fingers together, and hunched over his knees. He had promised her, yes, but to be honest, he may have regretted it right then because he wasn't ready to even admit half of these things to himself.

He sighed once, then started, "I was a troublesome kid," he stopped and looked up at her, then quickly looked away, "I was kicked out of every school in New York. I was always fighting with someone. And well one day I came home from school and I saw my mom with this other guy. Gabe. They went out a few times for the next six months or so, then he married my mom." He could tell Annabeth wasn't really following that this is where he life took a turn for the worse.

"Gabe, or as I called him Smelly Gabe, was a loser. All he ever did was make my mom cook and clean and work for their living so he could get drunk on 'his' beer. He smelled so disgusting and he never was anything that either of us deserved. My mom worked hard for everything, and she deserved the world, but she was stuck with the biggest loser on the block." Percy sighed again.

"Then when I was twelve, I got back to my apartment and my mom surprised me with a trip to Montauk. We had this small cabin up there. It would just be the two of us. I thought it would be great, getting away from Smelly Gabe and away from the city for a while. We needed and my mom deserved some time away from Gabe."

"Right before we left, I saw Gabe threatening my mom probably about the car. And that's when it hit me. I was so blind in the past to him and my mom, I just shoved their life out of the way. I realized that he threatened her more than just this once. She's been beaten and threatened many times before. And I was pissed.

"I wanted to go back in there and punch him in the face. I wanted him to feel at least a little bit of the pain that he made my mom felt, but when she came back out, she told me to let it go, that it was not that bad. She kept telling me that he was doing a lot for us that I couldn't understand." Percy let out a shaky breath before continuing, "And once we were in Montauk, she told me about my dad. He was involved in sailing and that he promised to come back and take care of us, but he never came back. He left my mom and me to fend for ourselves. I hated that I knew that he left us for some stupid job." He stopped for a few seconds, trying to compose himself.

"Then my story starts to sound a lot like yours. My mom told me there were people after us because of things that he did, or maybe didn't do… Those people showed up in Montauk and started chasing my mom and me…" his voice was becoming shaky, "She got me to the Hill. When I looked back she couldn't get through, but I was through. She was yelling at me to not come back, that she would be fine if I just left her. I couldn't take that. My mom is like my life, she's the only person that understood me for years and I wasn't about to lose her. So I didn't listen. The guys chasing us had finally gotten there, and were tying her up and kidnapping my mom. I couldn't take it. My mom just yelled at me to run, but I couldn't. I grabbed the shards from the broken window and started cutting the men with that."

Percy could feel his heart hammering just remembering the event. How his mom had been kidnapped just before his eyes, how he thought he'd never see her alive again, how he had run away from Camp to save her.

He played with the beaded necklace that lay around his neck from Camp. Then he started again, "They got ahold of my mom and took her before I could get her back to safety. I thought I'd lost her, I thought she was dead. I was a mess for weeks because of that. Eventually I couldn't take it any longer and I ran away from Camp. Grover saw me leaving and he said he had to come, that he would wake up Chiron if I didn't let him come with me. So it was just the two of us."

"We traveled cross-country, and I finally found my mom. She was alive, untouched. I didn't get the full story, Grover has hidden the full extent of it from me. I still don't know anything about that.

"Ever since we got back, Gabe's been gone. My mom got rid of him and he's been out of our lives since I was twelve." He nodded, and felt awkward so he added in, "So, yeah, that's it."

He looked over at Annabeth, who was looking at him in awe, "Y-you drool in y-your sleep…" Something about that sounded so familiar to him, but he was obviously missing something here. He could see her becoming redder with each passing second. Then it clicked.

"That was _you_?" he cried, his head snapping up. He remembered the blonde curls falling into his eyes as he opened them. She had talked to him like he was so basic, like he hadn't just lost his mother. She was harsh and sounded so critical when she said it.

She nodded, refusing to look at him, "I didn't know that you lost your mom when I said that. I'm sorry. It's just who I am. I mean with my familial background, I thought that no one could have it anywhere close to as bad as me. It turns out I was wrong." She sighed before continuing, "Chiron knew you were going to go after your mom. That's why Grover was out there. He tried to get me to wait with Grover, but my pride got in the way.

"He told me that you would need my help and that three is a safer number than just two. But I had already made up my mind that no matter what level of assistance you needed I wasn't going to go with you. I feel bad about that now. It was a chance to make a new friend, and I let my pride get in the way of that, I'm… I'm sorry."

He was surprised that she was telling him all of this, but he knew that she had probably held in the secret in for so long that it felt good to get it out. And honestly he didn't care about whether or not she had come with him or not. They weren't twelve anymore, they were more mature.

He leaned over and put his hand over hers, "It's fine; it's in the past." And he honestly meant it.

Finally she met his gaze and smiled a bit, "Thanks."

Then her phone started to buzz and quickly she pulled her hand away from his and answered it, "Thalia, calm down. I'm fine, don't worry. Can I get some stuff from your place?" There was a slight pause, "Oh… I'm with Percy…" He noticed blush creeping onto her face again, "We'll be there in a few minutes." She ended the call.

"Thalia has some extra clothes of mine at her house. Well that and an extra surfboard… I need to go pick up some things there. You're welcome to come with me if you want…"

He nodded and got up from the couch, "I'm ready if you are." She nodded taking the hand he was holding out to her.

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**A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! If you have anything that you want to tell me, go for it! I love getting constructive criticism from you guys!**

**Also if anyone knows any surfing terms, HELP ME! I need to know some because I plan to have more surfing in this story and want to make it sound like I know what I'm writing about! Thank you!**

**-Swimmy**


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